Temperature Factors in the Action of Certain Bacterial Endotoxins

Abstract

SummaryThe endotoxin of Shigella paradysenieriae (Flexner) induced in mice a marked hypothermia which developed at the same time as hemorrhage in implanted tumors and in decidua-placental tissues. Similar effects were observed for the endotoxins of Salmonella typhimurium and Rhodospirillum rubrum.Hypothermia and hyperthermia induced in tumor-bearing and pregnant mice by exposure to high and low temperature air baths were not paralleled by observable hemorrhagic effects.It is concluded that the endotoxin-induced hypothermia in mice and the previously reported endotoxin-induced hyperthermia in rabbits bear no direct causal relationship to the histopathological effects which develop in parallel to these thermal changes. An hypothesis based on the assumption that the endotoxins of gram-negative bacteria act as possible neural poisons rather than as exclusively vascular poisons is discussed.